I have been making  little art offerings to give away as random acts of kindness as part of Gretchen Miller’s  #CreativeDeed365.  Though January has proven to be too busy for me (I’m doing one extra day of clinical art therapy, plus teaching and extra class for the Toronto Art Therapy Institute) to make these daily, I have been making batches of them on the weekend or on evenings when I have some down time.  They have become somewhat of a meditative practice for me; flipping through magazines and picking out words or phrases that entice me as well as textures or photos that inspire and putting these together in ways that seem right in the moment.

They have been relaxing to do, and fun to leave in places where unsuspecting by passers might spot them and pick them up.  This has actually been challenging, since I really don’t want to be “caught” leaving them somewhere for others.  I like the mystery of it all, yet my critical self starts second guessing if anyone will find them or more specifically pick them up.

So far I have left these little messages of hope in washroom of restaurants, yoga studios, bulk stores, public transit, community centres, an ATM

Trust the process, trust the process, I keep reminding myself.  It has become my daily mantra.

What is this process anyway? By committing to make these little art offerings I am also committing to making art more regularly. The nature of these means that they are very in the moment and spontaneous driven. They are process oriented, yet there is the structure of a message that seems important for me to share at the time that I make it.  I follow my intuition.

Another part of the process is the placing of them in public places where they will be discovered by someone who will enjoy them.  There is of course the process of letting go.  Some of them I start to feel attached to in that I might like one more than another. Though I take pictures of each one, leaving them for someone else allows me to practice the act of releasing, letting go and non-attachment.  I don’t need these cards, but because I created them sometimes it feels like I should hang on to the ones I like. Letting them go helps me stay true to the process of creating for the sake of creating rather than for a product to hang on to.

I will keep you posted as I continue to leave these little art offerings for others.  Who knows maybe they will inspire the finder to make some of their own.  Maybe it will inspire a journal entry, or some art making in response.  If you would like to follow along and see the cards that I am leaving for others you can follow me on INSTAGRAM, Twitter Pinterest or Facebook .

If you really want to challenge yourself, you can make your own art response to the messages on my creative deeds in your art journal.  And of course you can make your own creative deeds to share with others- whenever you want (no rules).